It is five in the morning and night is fading into dawn. I am in my
favorite place at my favorite time–hunched over my computer before
morning light, stringing together sentences in the same way that a
child strings beads on thread, trying to make sense and create
resonance from words.
I could do this, I suppose, with a pen and a yellow pad. Indeed,
twenty years ago, I did. Now, my fingers bend to the keyboard and
resist writing more than a few paragraphs by pen. Technology has set me
free from scraps of paper and ink stained fingers. It has also yoked me
to a laptop and electronic adaptor that I carry almost everywhere.
Technology has transformed the way we write, think, communicate,
and learn. We’ve sped up communications, have access to more
information, and depend on precious microchips that–like so many other
resources in our society–are unevenly distributed. There is a racial
technology gap that has momentous implications for educational
attainment and workplace readiness in the future.
A 1995 report of the Department of Education indicated that Black
and Brown children are 30 percent less likely than white children to
have Internet access computers in their classrooms. Even when computers
are available in schools, the ratio of students to computers is nearly
twice as high in inner city schools as it is in the suburbs, where some
classrooms may have as many as a dozen computers. Further, Black and
Brown students are also only a third as likely as white students to
have computers at home. At the periphery of the computer revolution,
both at home and at school, where are these young people likely to be
in the twenty-first century workplace?
If computer literacy will be as necessary as basic literacy in the
future, what kind of futures will those without computer access have?
While some Americans are speeding down the information superhighway
with modems that connect to the Internet at faster and faster rates,
others are traveling on an unpaved side road in broken down jalopies —
or even on foot — as far removed from the superhighway as they will be
from the workforce of the future.
I believe that the technology gap will dictate part, but not all,
of the educational and workforce future for disadvantaged youth. In
other words, computers are not a panacea. There’s much educational
content, but also lots of junk, on the Internet. Some youngsters who
have computers at home use them to enhance their schoolwork. Others are
busy in chat rooms or game rooms, engaged in a sophisticated form of
leisure.
Computer access is key, but basic skills and literacy are equally
important. Inner city schools that lack computers with access to the
Internet need the same resources that suburban schools with Internet
access have. But every school also needs skilled and committed teachers
to teach basic literacy and mathematics. Every school needs a writing
program that helps youngsters express themselves concisely. Students
need to learn history and civics in addition to reading, writing, and
arithmetic.
